For You
by Evil Idiot
Summary: Syaoran returns to Japan, three years after the sealed card took his most important feeling--and Sakura can't forgive, or forget. AU, rewrite of "Downfall." CHAPTER TWO: Sakura confronts Syaoran; they reach an agreement; they break their agreement.
1. 00 Not Everything Will Be All Right

It was a sunny yet brisk autumn day

Notes: This story is an AU and a rewrite of one of my older fics, "Downfall," which I abandoned over five years ago. It diverges from canon in the ending of the second movie, which, if you're planning on reading this, I hope you've seen. There's also some minor and relatively unimportant crossover with Harry Potter (so it doesn't really matter that much if you haven't read that series). The very basic premise of this fic is the same as that of "Downfall," but I still haven't decided on whether to keep the original pairings. Here's hoping you guys enjoy this heavily revamped (and improved?) version.

Summary: Love after betrayal. (Syaoran returns to Japan, three years after the sealed card took his most important feeling.) AU

--

00: Not Everything Will Be All Right

--

It was a sunny, yet brisk autumn day. The trees were brilliant in color, all warm shades of red, orange and gold. A girl with her long, dark hair tied in two low ponytails sat on a bench amongst the foliage, enjoying an ice cream cone in the last days before the weather became too cold for such a treat. A boy with messy, slightly spiky red hair sat next to her, eating a matching ice cream cone in a different flavor. He was her best friend, and they were both ditching their first day of fall semester classes.

"Hey, Meiling? Could you hold onto my ice cream for a moment?" the boy asked, while reaching into his bag.

"Sure," Meiling replied, correctly assuming that he wanted to sketch something as he pulled out his well-worn but beloved sketchbook. She glanced around, wondering what had caught his attention, when her gaze settled on the bench across from them. A girl about their age, with artfully layered, shoulder-length hair that shone a golden auburn in the afternoon sun, had just sat down and begun texting someone on her cell phone. She was dressed casually, but in a sleek, dark-colored outfit that showed sophistication and taste. Meiling noted, with more than a tinge of envy, that this girl was far better looking than herself.

"Daisuke, your ice cream is melting," Meiling informed him as a trickle of melted ice cream made its way down the sides of the cone, while she leaned over to look at the sketch taking shape. He ignored her as he worked furiously, capturing on paper the wisps of hair, the delicately shaped face, and the slender, graceful figure, all against the natural backdrop of autumn leaves. She soon realized with a sinking feeling of dread, however, that this girl bore a striking resemblance to the last person in Tomoeda that she ever wanted to meet. Even worse, when she looked up, she saw that the girl had moved from her location on the bench and was now standing right in front of them.

"Hey, can I see what you're drawing?" she asked, with an undecipherable smile on her face that didn't quite reach her pale green eyes.

Daisuke snapped out of his oblivion and began to stammer and blush fiercely, realizing that he had been caught. "I-I-it's not done yet," he protested, but she had already leaned over and taken a look.

With a laugh, she said, "I think it's a little too flattering," and Meiling saw that the smile on her face had been a smirk.

"No, no, I think you're very pretty—" Daisuke began, before his face grew even redder and he promptly shut himself up before he embarrassed himself further.

She laughed again, and Meiling began to wish desperately that they'd gone to class like the good, obedient students that they weren't. It hadn't been particularly easy to ditch, since Meiling didn't exactly go to a normal junior high school, though she would never have agreed to return to Tomoeda if her school had just been a normal school—not after the disastrous summer of sixth grade, when her and Daidouji-san's little matchmaking scheme had gone horribly, horribly, wrong. Even now, Meiling still didn't know all the details from the incident; those were known only to Syaoran, who had turned back into the silent and largely emotionless statue he'd been before his first trip to Japan, and to Kinomoto-san, who stood before her now without a trace of the openness and cheerfulness that had broken down her barriers of prejudice and jealousy four years earlier.

The only reason Meiling attended school in Tomoeda, despite the risk of running into reminders of the unpleasant circumstances in which she had left three years ago, was the discovery of her magical abilities. Although everyone had long assumed her to be powerless, late in sixth grade, she had received an acceptance letter from Seiyou Academy, the only school in Asia for Western magic. It hadn't been a difficult decision to attend, even though she hadn't wanted to return to Japan, since her apparent lack of magic had always made her feel helpless, and she still felt guilty for not having been able to do anything that summer. She had always contemplated a number of what-ifs after receiving that acceptance letter: what if she'd known she had powers, what if she'd used her powers, what if she'd been able to prevent the whole mess…

So for the last two and a half years, Meiling had been a student at Seiyou Academy, which was located in a mansion not far from Daidouji-san's—nowhere else in the area was there a neighborhood with such large homes—that had been magically expanded, on the inside, to accommodate its several hundred students. She and Daisuke had met on their very first day there and had been friends ever since, and even though they both earned relatively good grades, they were often truant together, the latest instance of which had gotten them into their current situation.

"Sakura-chan!" Meiling heard a feminine voice call out, bringing her out of her thoughts. She turned to see a pale girl with long, slightly wavy, dark gray hair making her way towards their awkward group.

"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura addressed her as she turned towards her, her smile widening slightly. "You're late!" she added, though good-naturedly.

"I know," Tomoyo replied somewhat sheepishly. "I forgot to bring one of our textbooks when I first set out," she explained, and Meiling noticed that their bags, though stylish, were both crammed with books.

"That's okay, since I was late too. We should head over to the library to check over our summer homework, now." Sakura turned back towards them, and her expression grew cool again. "Maybe I'll see you around…Meiling-chan," she said with a wry smile, dismissing Meiling's faint, delusional hopes that she hadn't been recognized. Turning back to Tomoyo, she added, "Let's go."

Though she gave a long, questioning look at Meiling, Tomoyo didn't protest, and the two girls set off.

Daisuke now looked confused as well. "Who _was_ she? I didn't know you knew anyone here."

"Just a childhood friend," Meiling replied shortly, not willing to go into detail. "Let's go back to school," she suggested, though it was more of a command than a suggestion. Her good mood, brought about by the pleasant weather, had been completely ruined by the unexpected encounter with her past.

--

On a chilly, cloudy morning a month or so into the fall semester, Sakura was running late to school.

"How did I sleep through my alarm again?" she thought to herself, annoyed, while racing down the streets of Tomoeda. She looked anything but composed, with her shoes haphazardly thrown on and a half-eaten slice of toast still in her mouth. Her chronic near lateness was perhaps the only part of her that didn't fit the cool, collected image she had unintentionally cultivated since that start of junior high. Sakura herself hadn't noticed, but she'd grown far more introverted and withdrawn amongst others, unlike her cheerful, friendly younger self. Her popularity among her classmates now had more to do with her being the captain of the cheerleading squad, rather than with her personality, as it once had. She and Tomoyo had remained close, but there wasn't anyone else who could really be called more than an acquaintance.

Sakura was only about a block away from her school, and inwardly cheering that she wasn't going to be late, when she rounded a corner and crashed headfirst into another person.

"Ouch," she muttered, looking up from where she had fallen backwards to catch a brief, tantalizing glimpse of a good-looking boy with tousled, light brown hair. "Sorry," she apologized hurriedly, getting up and running off as quickly as she could. Luckily, she managed to slide into her seat just in time for the bell to ring and her homeroom teacher to walk in the door.

"We have a transfer student joining us today," he announced, and it was at that moment that Sakura noticed that the person standing outside of their classroom door was trying to conceal his or her aura from her.

Her relief at making it to class on time vanished, only to be replaced by irritation. Ever since all of the Cards had been sealed and converted, more than once, a "transfer student" had joined her class and attempted to steal them. This always followed a useless attempt to hide their magic and take her by surprise. It didn't matter that Sakura never used her magic if she could help it; as the Card Mistress, her powers remained strong enough that none of them had ever posed a threat. She was sure that whoever this "transfer student" was, she could simply confront him or her after class and get their inevitable defeat over with.

"Please come in and introduce yourself to the class," her homeroom teacher called out. The door slid open and in walked the boy she had knocked over just a few minutes earlier. As he glanced uninterestedly around the room, their eyes met, and Sakura felt a conflicting, overwhelming knot of emotions well up within her as she came to the sickening realization of just whom he was.

"My name is Li Syaoran," said Syaoran, a bit shakily, as the teacher wrote his name on the board. "Nice to meet you all," he added more forcefully, though it didn't sound like he meant it.

"There's an empty seat over by…ah, Kinomoto's right. Please take a seat there," the teacher told Syaoran, gesturing towards Sakura. He did as he was told, making his way towards the back of the classroom, and Sakura wished desperately that she was sitting anywhere but there as everyone around her, especially the girls, began to whisper excitedly.

He didn't look at her as he sat down—he made a point of not looking at her. Sakura couldn't concentrate throughout their classes anyway, though, even though this time, he wasn't glaring fiercely at the back of her head. It would have been simpler if he'd just been another would-be challenger for the Cards, and all she had to do was crush him in a one-sided contest of magical ability. Instead, questions about what he was doing back in Tomoeda, and how she would be able to deal with seeing him so often, kept running through her mind, causing some of her teachers to scold her for not paying attention in her classes.

Until that morning, Sakura had believed that Syaoran would stay out of Japan, and out of her life, after he rejected her three years ago during the incident with the sealed card. At the time, she'd been so scared that the Card would take her feelings before she could confess to him properly—except that it was Syaoran who had the most power when it was time to make the sacrifice, and Syaoran who had been forced to give up his most important feeling. She had known that she'd been too late by the time she'd gathered up the courage to say anything, but that didn't keep it from hurting when she'd seen his blank, expressionless face and heard him utter those three simple, dreadful words: _I'm so sorry_.

Sakura knew she couldn't blame him entirely for what happened, but she hadn't wanted to see him, either, and was grateful to hear that he'd left. She couldn't see any reason for him coming back now…unless it had something to do with Meiling-chan being in town as well? When Sakura had seen Meiling a month ago, on the last day of summer vacation, she had been sorely tempted to ask her what she was doing in Tomoeda, but she hadn't been able to resist taking the opportunity of escape that Tomoyo's arrival had brought. Seeing Meiling had reminded her too painfully of Meiling's cousin, and her inability to deal with thinking about Syaoran had won against her curiosity.

But now Syaoran was sitting just a foot or two away from her, and it was impossible not to think about him; she couldn't just ignore him. By the time their morning classes were about to end, Sakura had resolved to find out his intentions, and as soon as she possibly could.

After the bell rang to signal the start of lunch, she turned to her right and asked, as calmly as she could, "Could I have a word with you, Li-kun? Outside?"

He nodded, getting up and following her wordlessly, and as they left, hushed exclamations and heated whispers broke out about how _damn,_ _Kinomoto-san moves fast_.


	2. 01 Reset, Restart, Reunion

--

01: Reset, Restart, Reunion

--

Sakura and Syaoran made their way through the school in complete silence, going through hallways crammed with chattering students and up bustling staircases without one word to each other. They finally ended their walk when they reached the school's rooftop, which was, fortunately, completely deserted. Even though they were surrounded on all sides by open space, Sakura began to feel distinctly claustrophobic. Neither of them had said anything on their way there, but she'd been acutely and overly aware of Syaoran's presence the entire time—she hated how uncomfortable she felt around him, but what she hated even more was being uncomfortable in the first place. It had been three years; he shouldn't have mattered so much to her, anymore.

Deciding just to get the inevitable conversation over with, Sakura swallowed her hesitation and asked, bluntly, "Why are you back in Japan?"

After a few moments' pause, Syaoran haltingly began, "It's…Meiling. You wouldn't have known this, but she's in Japan too—"

"No, I already knew that," Sakura interrupted, cutting him off abruptly; she didn't see the expression of surprise on his face, since, though they were both leaning on the metal railing at the edge of the rooftop, she had her head turned away from him. "What I don't know is why she'd possibly be here."

"She goes to school here," he replied, much to Sakura's surprise.

"School? What's so special about going to school in Tomoeda?"

"It's a school for Western magic, and the only one in Asia," he explained, "so there wasn't much of a choice if she wanted to learn magic."

"That still doesn't explain what you're doing here," she noted, deciding to satisfy her curiosity about Meiling's school herself, later, rather than having to rely on Syaoran for the information.

"I was getting there," he said, and there was a hint of a scowl in his tone. "I'm here because my mother believes that Meiling is in trouble somehow, and the premonition that gave her that belief didn't give her any specifics, so we don't know what's wrong."

"Then why didn't you just ask Meiling-chan herself, instead of going through the trouble of flying here and transferring to another school?" Sakura felt her self-control on her bitterness slipping, as she barely restrained herself from asking why it had to be this particular school, or, even more incriminatingly, why it had to be _her_ school, and _her _life, that he was barging into.

"Meiling doesn't seem to know about it yet, so my mother and I agreed that it would be easier to figure out and deal with the situation if she acted normally while I observed her," Syaoran answered.

"So you transferred here because you don't know how long it'll take," Sakura surmised, and although her tone was neutral, her thoughts were anything but—she was starting to dread the horrid, but highly likely possibility that she could be stuck sitting next to him for the rest of the school year.

"Yes," he replied shortly.

They stood in uneasy silence for a few minutes, while Sakura's mind worked furiously—she needed to figure out how she was going to cope with seeing him every day for, potentially, the next half year. He was probably the only aspect of her life she couldn't somehow view in a positive light, the only mishap of her past she couldn't simply shrug off; it would be impossible just to ignore him, just as it had been during their classes that day.

When her thoughts settled, Sakura spoke up, finally breaking through the strained atmosphere. "In the meantime, then, we should just leave each other alone. I won't interfere in the situation with Meiling-chan, and you won't get involved in my affairs, either."

"All right," Syaoran agreed readily, "and I'll finish helping Meiling as early as I can, to return to Hong Kong as soon as possible."

"Good," said Sakura, though her demeanor was cool, rather than pleased, as her words might suggest. "I'm going back to class, then," she added, walking towards the same staircase they'd used to reach the roof. She didn't spare a glance backwards as she made her way back down; she hadn't glanced at him once, in all the time since they'd left the classroom.

--

As soon as classes were over, Syaoran made his way to his apartment, dropped off his school supplies, and headed back outside, all as quickly as he could. He hadn't lied or exaggerated, earlier, during that awkward conversation with Sakura—he intended to finish his mission as early as he could so that he didn't have to reminded of the most painful part of his past each day he remained in Japan.

Seeing Sakura again had been an unpleasant experience, to put it lightly—the Sealed Card had taken all his affectionate feelings for her, but it hadn't gone so far as to take his memories, as well, despite how much he wished that it had. Syaoran remembered their days of capturing, then converting, the Clow Cards; he remembered how their rivalry had morphed, over time, into a friendship, and then into something more; he remembered falling in love with her, and what he had loved about her—her unending cheerfulness, and determination, and kindheartedness—but all she stirred up now, when he could bring himself to think of her, were overwhelming feelings of guilt and regret. He could tell himself that it hadn't been his fault, but he couldn't really believe that, and when he faced her, he couldn't help dwelling on whether there'd been any other way for them to deal with the Sealed Card. He wasn't—he couldn't be—in love with her, but he wasn't heartless, either, and he was tired of making girls suffer…

So once he was outside, after making his way to a secluded spot, Syaoran released his sword and, in one swift, smooth motion, made a long, shallow cut on his left hand. It stung fiercely, but Syaoran ignored the pain, since it was a vital part of the spell he was casting now—a locator spell, in order to track Meiling down. He had only the vaguest idea of where she might be, since her school was rather secretive, and only its students and faculty knew its exact location. Thus, he'd never seen the school himself, and he would have to find Meiling herself in order to observe her.

As blood welled up from the cut and began to drip onto the ground, Syaoran reached into his pocket and pulled out the second item he was using for the spell—a thin red ribbon, one of the ones Meiling used to tie her hair with. Technically, he didn't need the ribbon, since the locator spell was designed to find one's blood relatives (hence, the need for his blood), but having one of Meiling's possessions would allow the spell to focus on her.

While holding the ribbon in his bleeding hand, Syaoran began to chant the words of the spell, and he watched intently as the dark red stain on the ground began to move from its original location, presumably in Meiling's direction. He followed the blood's path, as carefully and discreetly as he could, as it led him out of his neighborhood and through the streets of Tomoeda. After about an hour, though, he noticed that the spell had been leading him around in large, random circles—meaning that even what was normally a powerful spell was completely useless.

Syaoran summed up his feelings in one inelegant, but fitting word. "Shit."

--

The next morning, Syaoran trudged into class so early that even the girl who was on cleaning duty that day had just begun tidying up the classroom. He was exhausted from his attempts to find Meiling the afternoon and night before—after that first failed spell, it was followed by about half a dozen more—but somehow he'd managed to wake up before his alarm clock went off, and he didn't want to risk sleeping through it if he went back to sleep.

Syaoran felt himself drifting off again, and his head began to feel heavier and heavier as it inched ever closer to his desk; just as he was about to give in and go to sleep with his head in his arms, he noticed that the only other person in the room had come up to him and was fixing him with an intent, serious look. Unfortunately, it was another familiar face: the girl had long, slightly wavy, dark gray hair; pale skin; pretty, refined features; clear, violet eyes that were narrowed in her displeasure with him—

"Daidouji," he said, with some surprise.

"We need to talk," Tomoyo replied levelly, with a brusqueness he didn't remember seeing her display, before.

Syaoran glanced at the clock; he saw, to his dismay, that there was still about twenty minutes before any of their classmates would arrive. It looked like his former confidante and advisor had plenty of time to interrogate him.

"You want to know what I'm doing here," he guessed.

"Actually, that doesn't really matter to me," she said, contradicting him. "I know—well, really, everyone knows—that Sakura-chan already talked to you yesterday, and if your explanation was good enough for her, then I'm satisfied with it, as well. I just wanted you to promise me something."

"Name it."

"Don't ever hurt Sakura-chan again," she answered tersely.

It was a complete reversal of her attitude three or four years earlier, when she'd been the one to get him to realize and admit his feelings in the first place, to support him, to encourage him to confess; without Tomoyo's interference, he may have never said anything to Sakura at all. Yet now she was barely civil, perhaps even bordering on hostile—but she had every right to hate him, perhaps even more so than Sakura herself. Tomoyo had always been too reserved ever to say anything, but he knew that she'd sacrificed her own chances with Sakura in order to help him with his—chances that he ended up completely squandering. He would understand if she never forgave him.

"I don't have any intentions of hurting Kinomoto," he said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

"But what good did your intentions do three years ago?" Tomoyo countered; her composure began to crack, and her voice grew shakier. "How did everything turn out, despite your intentions?"

Syaoran was startled to see that she looked like she might cry, when, just a second ago, her expression had been dark with animosity. He was at a loss as for what to say to this, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was a good thing that, in the next moment, their classmate rushed in while apologizing hurriedly for being late; this was probably Daidouji's tardy cleaning duty partner. His arrival had effectively cut off their conversation, which was largely a relief, since Syaoran didn't know how to deal with this straightforward, openly emotional girl who was so unlike the rational, collected one he remembered. He was concerned, however, that he'd been cut off before he could manage to convince Daidouji that he was going to do his best to avoid hurting her best friend; he had seen, even from their brief conversation, that it would be a bad idea to make her an enemy.

--

Meiling sat impatiently during her Magical Art class while their professor passed back the project he'd assigned about a month ago. She was eager to see how she'd done, considering the amount of time and effort she'd put into hers, which, in her case, had been a set of tarot cards she'd designed herself. They'd been given considerable freedom in choosing what to do for their project, as long as it was related to another one of their subjects (in which they would receive extra credit), so Meiling had chosen to tie hers in to her favorite subject, Divination.

Incidentally, Magical Art happened to be Meiling's least favorite subject. First of all, she'd always felt inadequate at the subject next to her best friend, Daisuke, who was the art genius of the school; second of all, something about the professor had always given her an uneasy feeling, a strange mix of déjà vu and dislike. She wasn't sure what could be causing it, since aside from his appearance—his dark blue hair and blue eyes weren't uncommon, but he looked far too young to be teaching, since didn't look any older than she did—he wasn't particularly unusual in any way, nor had he ever treated her differently. He did grade a bit harshly, in her opinion, but not to the extent that she'd hold it against him.

The impatience Meiling felt seemed to grow exponentially as most of the graded projects had been returned, including Daisuke's—a near-perfect score, as usual—but not hers. "That's strange," she mused, "he usually does it in alphabetical order—why has he skipped over mine? I usually get mine before Daisuke does…"

Finally, after it seemed that everyone else had received his or her project, the professor dropped a folded sheet of parchment on her desk. Puzzled, she opened it, and it read: "Li Meiling—please come see me after class," which only fueled her curiosity. Thus, for the rest of the class, Meiling was left in apprehension, and she could hardly concentrate on what the professor was talking about. It was a relief to hear the bell signaling the end of class, and the start of lunch break.

"Hey, Daisuke, I need to talk to the professor about something, so go on without me," Meiling said, while they were packing up their things.

"Oh, see you later, then," Daisuke called out, his expression slightly confused as he exited the classroom, though he didn't question her further.

As her classmates all filtered out of the room, Meiling made her way to the professor's desk towards the front. "You wanted to see me, Professor Hiiragizawa?"

"Yes, I did," he said, while pulling open and reaching into a drawer in his desk. "It's about your project. You must have wondered why it wasn't returned along with everyone else's."

"Yes," Meiling replied, barely managing to conceal her irritation from his stating the obvious, as well as from her being forced to miss out on lunch, since she was already hungry.

"I was wondering if these look any different from when you turned them in," he said in a seemingly casual tone, placing the object he'd taken out—her tarot cards—on his desk, where she could see them.

Meiling glanced at them carefully, but she didn't need to scrutinize her cards to see that they had, indeed, changed appearance. She had colored them with motion paint to animate them, but they weren't supposed to change like _this_: the colors had faded, growing muted and bleak, the art style had grown more twisted and misshapen, and even the symbolism on some of the cards had been completely reversed—for example, the vibrant sunflowers on The Sun had been replaced by withered yew trees.

"This isn't what they're supposed to look like," she confirmed, wondering what could have possibly caused the transformation, and what it could mean.

His expression, which had been fairly neutral up until that point, grew grave. "This is a serious matter, then," he finally said, after a few moments' pause. "We'll have to discuss this further, later—can you meet me in my office on Friday night?"

"Yes, but why can't you just tell me what's the matter, right now?" Meiling asked, both perplexed and agitated by how serious he had gotten.

"I need to run some tests to confirm my suspicions," he answered. "And you don't want to miss lunch, either, right? So I'll be waiting in my office on Friday at eight in the evening."

"All right, then, I'll be there," she agreed reluctantly, leaving the classroom even more bewildered than she'd been when she'd first gotten his note.

--

It took a week of fruitlessly searching for his cousin before Syaoran was ready to swallow his pride and ask for help. He'd tried every spell he could possibly think of that might locate Meiling, and when he ran out of those, he had looked up some more; he had researched her school, Seiyou Academy, for any hint of where in Tomoeda it could be; he had resisted the temptation, many times, to contact Meiling herself, in order to end this whole mess of looking for her without her knowing of it.

Syaoran was hesitant to ask for help, though, not because it was a major blow to his ego (because it wasn't, really), but because of whom he'd be asking for help from. His research on Seiyou Academy had led him to conclude that it would be impossible for him alone to find it, since it was warded more heavily against Eastern magic than Western; this arrangement was more practical, since there were far more potentially hostile Eastern sorcerers in the area than Western ones, though for him, it just meant that he couldn't ask anyone in his clan for help—though by now, since he was the future Head of the Li Clan, only his mother surpassed him in magical skill, anyway. He would need to rely on someone who could use either Western magic, or a blend of Eastern and Western; the problem was that the only person he knew who met this qualification was none other than the current Card Mistress, Kinomoto Sakura.

Although it would mean breaking their agreement, after some deliberation, Syaoran decided that he would ask Sakura to help, anyway, because even though they would be forced to interact with each other, he'd be able to deal with Meiling's situation, and thus leave Japan, that much sooner. There was no point in maintaining their non-interference arrangement if it meant that they would have to see each other for a longer period of time, and he was beginning to grow concerned about Meiling, as well, since he still had no idea of what kind of trouble she was in.

This was why Syaoran found himself waiting some distance outside the front gates, around the time Sakura was supposed to get off from cheerleading practice. He'd left a note in her shoe locker telling her when and where to meet him, instructing her to come by herself, and he could only hope that she would listen; he didn't want to have to confront her in class, since he didn't think it would be a good idea if Tomoyo found out—she might get the wrong idea, and assume that he was "bothering" her best friend.

Soon enough, Syaoran saw Sakura exiting the front gates, saying bye to her fellow cheerleaders, and making her way towards him.

"I thought we agreed to ignore each other," she said, not bothering to greet him.

"I know," he acknowledged, "but I need your help to find Meiling."

Sakura gave him a strange look, as if to ask why he couldn't do it himself.

"Her school's barriers are too powerful against Eastern magic," he elaborated. "Your magic is more suitable for this."

She thought for a moment before pointing out, "I don't have a Card that would work for this."

"There must be something," Syaoran protested, and a tinge of desperation slipped into his voice. He couldn't help it; his patience was worn thin from a disheartening week without any sort of progress.

After a long pause, Sakura reluctantly said, "Meet me in front of the train station at ten in the morning, tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"I have an idea, but I want to discuss it with Kero-chan first. There's no school tomorrow, either, so that gives us more time to look for Meiling-chan," she explained.

"All right," he said, but Sakura didn't say anything to this; she simply nodded and left, which left Syaoran to wonder what idea she'd managed to come up with, and hoping that it would work better than the countless failed attempts he'd made that past week.

--

Eriol was in his office when he heard someone knocking lightly on his door.

"Come in," he called out.

The door opened to reveal Meiling, as expected, since it was Friday night.

"Take a seat," he invited, gesturing towards the chair facing his.

She sat down, and went straight to the point. "So what's wrong with my cards?"

"I'll get to that in a minute," he said. "Have some tea, first," he suggested.

"Thank you," she said, as he poured her a cup, though she didn't seem particularly pleased about him dodging her question.

Eriol watched intently as Meiling took a sip, then made a face. "What kind of tea is this?" she asked.

"It's green tea," he replied, "but there's also some Forgetfulness Potion in it."

"Oh." It took a moment for his last statement to sink in. "Wait, what?"

"The potion only takes less than a minute to take effect, so you should feeling drowsy right about now. You'll fall asleep, and wake up with no memory of this, or of our last conversation," he said.

The potion was the real reason he'd asked her to "discuss the situation later," since it was finicky and needed to be prepared carefully, and in advance. Its advantage was that it could be fine-tuned to erase memories more specifically and effectively than an _Obliviate_, so he had been busy, the last few days, with perfecting it.

"But…_why_?" she asked, and her utter confusion was written all over her face, along with the tiredness that was creeping in.

"I don't want you to try to deal with everything yourself, again," he answered cryptically.

"What do you…mean by…again…?" Meiling managed to get out before she slumped over, fast asleep.

Eriol looked at her, a little sadly and wistfully. "It looks like you've forgotten everything…Avaline."

--

Notes: So normally I don't like to ask for reviews, but it's a bit disheartening to see just two people leave a comment when well over a hundred people read the story. Please just take a minute to let me know what you guys think; I'd really appreciate it, even if it's not long and insightful and full of constructive criticism.


End file.
